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A new lawsuit accuses a major bank of targeting, firing and ultimately blacklisting Chinese and Chinese American employees and customers in a sweeping effort to make the lender appear tougher on anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.
The complaint, filed against TD Bank in federal court, claims the bank selectively enforced its AML policies at its New York City Chinatown branches, not because of genuine investigative findings, but because it wanted to appease regulators while unfairly linking its own Chinese workforce to criminal money-broker networks.
According to the filing, TD allegedly treated Chinese and Chinese American employees as scapegoats during a period of heightened regulatory scrutiny. Rather than apply its AML rules evenly across the company, the suit says the bank deployed them aggressively and disparately against staff of Chinese descent.
In doing so, the bank allegedly suggested, without evidence, that the employees were inherently tied to illicit activity simply because of their ethnicity and the communities they served.
The lawsuit also alleges that after terminating many of the employees, TD Bank closed their personal and business accounts and “demarketed” them from the institution entirely. This meant they were reportedly barred from banking with the lender in the future, effectively treating them as risks rather than customers.
The complaint characterizes it as especially egregious given that TD had previously relied on the same employees to strengthen its presence and reputation in the Chinese community.
TD Bank has not yet publicly responded to the allegations, but the lawsuit is likely to draw considerable attention as it moves forward.
